Two Democrats are going head to head to try and win back the 92nd Illinois House seat being vacated by Republican Aaron Schock.

Eric Shangraw catches up with both candidates in their final sprint to Tuesdays primary.

Here is the not so glamorous grunt work of trying to win a seat in Springfield. Allen Mayer on the phone in the basement of the Peoria Labor Temple... asking for votes. Jehan Gordon trudging through the snow looking for support....knocking on doors. Nobody answers.

Both want to represent residents who live in some of Peoria's most troubled neighborhoods. To fight crime, Gordon is a big proponent of the gun buy back program.

We have to begin to take measures that will allow communities to take back their communities.

Gordon also supports funding for Operation Cease–Fire... a public campaign to stop violence. Mayer says he would fight the governor to re–implement state money for the program.

I know there are a lot of folks in the house that are trying to restore that funding and obviously I would be supportive of that.

In terms of public school funding, Mayer supports a plan floated years ago by the Illinois Farm Bureau... lowering property taxes and increasing the income tax to level the playing field between poor neighborhoods and wealthy ones.

That they'll have equal resources so that they will be able to offer the same opportunities to kids here in Peoria or Peoria Heights or Bartonville that you would have in Dunlap or Wilmet.

Gordon is a member of the Pleasant Valley School board and sees the need for a new school funding formula first hand.

A Capitol Bill will do it. It is a 25.4–billion dollar bill that if signed will get a lot of downstate communities money for roads, schools and school construction.

Gordon works at Illinois Central College and says she can almost predict a students testing ability by looking at which community they come from. She'd like to use a state office to help eliminate that correlation. Mayer is a member of the Peoria County Board and has spent a decade behind the scenes in politics helping others get elected. He's putting that knowledge to work for himself in this race. The winner of next weeks primary will face off against a republican in November. For one, the campaign has only begun.